


The White Crown

by TheDarkRat



Series: War!Darcy [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Darcy-Land, Desi Bruce Banner, Fanon Explained, Hydra (Marvel), Kinda based on Good Omen's take on the four horsemen, Minor Body Horror, POC Bruce Banner, War!Darcy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-05 03:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15855615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkRat/pseuds/TheDarkRat
Summary: Pestilence saw the perfect Avatar. He cared not what Zola wanted, only how he intended to accomplish it. The roots of weeds planted by the gardeners unknowingly. It was a perfect plan.





	1. The Diagnosis

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd - I do not own Marvel

In the Spring of 1945, Operation Overcast began. The United States used its might and victory to lure and recruit hundreds of German, Swiss, Prussian, and Nazi scientists. The idea was if these brilliant minds were working for America, they couldn’t be working against America. But like so many political philosophies, it looked better on paper than in practice.  

As each scientist or engineer was brought over, an entity lurked ever closer. Finally, Arnim Zola was called for swearing in. Zola may have walked through the door, but it was Pestilence that walked out. 

Zola had ideas, he had plans, and more importantly, he had the ambition to see them to fruition. Pestilence saw the perfect Avatar. He cared not what Zola wanted, only how he intended to accomplish it. The roots of weeds planted by the gardeners unknowingly. It was a perfect plan. 

After Zola that was Pestilence was released from SSR, he set to work. He had seeds to plant, sprouts to tend, and a garden to grow. Its crowning glory, a former US Army man, infected and turned. The electrical brainwashing program was a thing of genius. It tickled Pestilence that the apparatus was a crown of white metal and black wires. 

 

* * *

 

SSR became SHIELD. The garden grew. Pestilence that was Zola worked quietly. Secrets were the currency, power and positions were the goals. Here a new planting, there a pruning. It was precise and attentive work. But so rewarding. 

With his Winter Soldier, his Pale Rider, Pestilence pushed Zola’s plans. A forest fire was always beneficial to the forest, it opened up new sunlight for smaller trees, enriched the soil with the ashes, and again Pestilence found humor, some grass seeds  _ needed _ the fire to seed. So the fire was sent in the form of a man, and in his wake, the garden bloomed. 

 

* * *

Unlike his fellow Riders, Pestilence did not grant his Avatars health or life. It would be against his very nature to do so. Thus when Zola was diagnosed with cancer, Pestilence might have left him if a new technology hadn’t been within reach. 

 

After a quick study both Zola and Pestilence were delighted. For Zola it was immortality. For Pestilence, it was another way to send vines into the human world. It might have been impossible without Pestilence’s power to smooth out some of the wrinkles, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Hydra gained an improbable asset. The first human to computer upload. 


	2. The Symptoms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not canon compliant. See bottom notes for clarification.

Pestilence was there when the Red Room opened its doors. He was there when the Doomsday Clock was at five minutes to midnight. When Howard Stark knew too much, Pestilence sent Hydra’s Fist, his  very own pale rider. When the Middle East was getting a touch too stable and Zola’s garden needed the resources, the United States sent in puppets. Pestilence’s fingers lovingly stroked the files and keys. Things went missing, intel went bad, good men and women were memorialized on the walls of the Triskelion. 

Assassinations watered the thirsty plants. The funding to terrorists or paramilitary groups were fertilizer. The garden grew lush and healthy; all the while, in the shade of SHIELD.

 

* * *

 

 

Bruce Banner had been named after his father. Robert Banner had met Bruce’s mother in 1967 and had swept her off her feet. She had been born Anaya Reddy but changed it to Anna Redding for college. Her parents had moved to America from Bombay when they realized that Anaya was a genius. She had tested into a special program for mathematics and in 1967 she turned 17 with two master degrees. 

When Anna Redding had met Robert Banner, she thought it was love at first sight. He was tall, handsome, suave. He was a mechanical engineer and she thought they would have a perfect life. They did. Until they didn’t. 

1978 brought turmoil to the small college town they lived in. Robert was injured on a job that was a top secret, government funded, Howard Stark brainchild. His left hand would never be the same. He lost his job. Bruce was 9. 

In the span of ten months, Bruce’s homelife went from magical to mayhem. Robert took to drinking. He spent the injury settlement money on the horse races. Anna kept teaching and researching at the college. Robert became jealous of his wife’s success. He was just as smart, if not smarter than her! How come she still had a job and he didn’t! It wasn’t fair! 

It started small. Yelling. Then slaps. But it escalated. Bruce watched from the shadows. He was small for his age, quiet and shy. He didn’t want his mother to get hurt, but she told him to stay out of the way. One day, Bruce just couldn’t take it anymore. He was 11 and his father was drunk. Robert swung the half-empty whiskey bottle and Anna fell to the floor amid shards of glass and blood. She did not get up. The last thing Bruce remembered from that night was leaping from behind the couch, landing on his father’s back, arms around Robert’s neck. 

The police had been called by the neighbor. Bruce was kneeling next to his mother, sobbing silently. His father’s body was across the room, his head bleeding from the table’s corner. The coroner’s report said Anna had died from blunt force trauma to her skull, Robert from the alcohol and gravity conspiring with the kitchen table. Bruce was unhurt. 

When Bruce sat in the lab chair, his research on Gamma radiation floating in his mind, he wondered idly who had ordered this project done. Pestilence didn’t wonder. He was there. 

 

* * *

 

The years ticked by. Technology advanced. Humans were so creative, Pestilence mused. He and his brethren barely needed to do anything these days. Simply play a guiding hand. 

Through SHIELD’s eyes, Pestilence watched the Stark son grow up, become the Merchant of Death, and then die in the desert. Pestilence had been with him in those caves, the 10 Rings group was only one of many fed secretly from Zola’s shady garden. 

When the sky opened over Manhattan, Zola that was compiled every ounce and scrap of data. This was new and exciting. It was also signs and portents. Soon. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of Fanon has Bruce Banner spending time in India. I like that idea. But, aside from a dense population, there was no reason. Also - canon says Bruce is a white guy. No offense, but, he is gonna stick out like a sore thumb. So, I changed that. His mother is from Bombay (yes, I know it's Mumbai now, but during the time frame spoken about, it wasn't.) I also care little about if that is feasible or not. This gives him a solid background of his mother's culture, partial language knowledge, nostalgia for spices and foods, and a respect for the gods and religions. 
> 
> I think that makes a lot more sense for why Bruce hangs out in India while he's on the run. Just imagine Mark Ruffalo with skin a couple shades darker and boom.


End file.
